A four-year-old girl was yesterday decapitated in an apparently random attack in Taipei in full view of her mother, police said.
An unemployed man, identified as Wang Ching-yu (王景玉), has been detained in connection with the gruesome killing.
The attack occurred at about 11am when the girl, surnamed Liu (劉), and her mother were on their way to an MRT rail station in northern Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) to meet the girl’s grandfather and two of her siblings for lunch.
Photo: Chin Jen-hao, Taipei Times
Liu was riding a bicycle on Huanshan Road Sec 1, when she was attacked, Taipei City Police Department Neihu Precinct investigation unit head Yang Kun-ming (楊坤明) said, adding that the attacker grabbed the girl from behind and decapitated her with a cleaver.
Passersby and area residents subdued the attacker and called the police, who arrested the suspect upon arriving at the scene, Yang said, adding that police were still trying to determine the motive.
Liu’s mother told reporters that her daughter, nicknamed Xiao Deng Pao (小燈泡, little lightbulb), was riding a bicycle about a meter ahead of her when the bicycle got stuck and could not climb onto a sidewalk.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
When the attacker approached the girl, her mother said she thought he was going to help her pick up her bicycle, but instead he began attacking her.
She said she was still closing the distance between her and her daughter when the man started attacking Liu, and she was unable to pull him away from her daughter due to his strength.
The girl’s mother said that when area residents who heard her screams for help rushed to the scene, she saw that her daughter had been decapitated.
“I never thought this society was so dangerous,” the mother said, expressing the hope that her daughter would be the last victim of a random attack.
“Xiao Deng Pao told me that she missed her brother and sister, so she wanted to pick them up,” her tearful mother said. “I am very sad. I will never see her again, and she will never see her brother and sister again.”
The girl’s mother called on the government for measures to guarantee the nation’s working mothers’ peace of mind, saying: “The government said it is focusing on families and education, so how could this happen?”
The girl’s parents and grandparents were later seen kneeling next to her body, weeping.
“Society is sick,” her grandmother said.
An angry mob attempted to assault Wang yesterday afternoon when he was escorted by police out of the Neihu Precinct to board a vehicle to take him for further questioning, with some in the mob shouting: “Do you have no conscience?”
Curses and yells of “Kill him” from the mob descended into scuffles and police were eventually forced to return him to the station.
According to police, Wang had previously been treated at a psychiatric hospital in the city.
Wang was quoted by police as saying that he did not know the victim, and that he had purchased the knife earlier in the morning.
Records showed that Wang, 33, had sought treatment at Taipei City Hospital’s Songde Branch, a public psychiatric hospital, but he does not have a government-issued disability card, police said.
The hospital confirmed that Wang had sought treatment there once in 2014, but said that does not prove he has a mental illness. At the time, he had admitted to using narcotics, but a drug test returned negative, the hospital said.
Further investigation would be required to discern whether Wang had sought psychiatric treatment elsewhere, the hospital said.
Wang has convictions for drug offenses and is unemployed, police said.
In related news, earlier media reports that Wang allegedly attempted to scale the walls of Taipei Municipal Xihu Elementary School near the scene of the attack appeared to be erroneous.
School officials rejected the allegations, but said that military instructors from the school’s safety center and local police have tightened security and stepped up patrols around the campus.
The girl’s murder was the third apparently random killing of a child in Taiwan in four years.
Last year, an intruder entered a bathroom at an elementary school in Taipei and slashed the throat of an eight-year-old girl.
In 2012, a man cut the throat of a 10-year-old boy in a bathroom at a video game arcade in Tainan.
However, National Police Agency Deputy Director-General Chen Chia-chang (陳嘉昌) said at a legislative session that yesterday’s killing was an isolated case.
Police would set up additional patrols to prevent similar incidents, Chen said.
NOT BUYING IT: One of the goals of Beijing’s Cross-Strait Media People Summit was to draw mainstream media executives to discuss the ‘one country, two systems’ formula Taiwanese news media insist on press freedom and professionalism, and would never become a tool of China’s “united front” campaign, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday, responding to media queries about the lack of Taiwanese media executives at the Cross-Strait Media People Summit in Beijing. Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧) was reportedly furious that no Taiwanese media representatives attended a scheduled meeting with him on Thursday last week. “Beijing should take Taiwan’s determination to pursue freedom and democracy seriously. We also hope that it will not use vicious means to interfere with Taiwan’s development into a
IMMIGRATION REFORM: The legislative amendments aim to protect the rights of families to reunify, and to attract skilled professionals to stay and work in Taiwan Foreigners who are highly skilled professionals, top-prize winners in professional disciplines, investment immigration applicants or have made special contributions to Taiwan can soon apply for permanent residency on behalf of their spouses and minor or disabled children after the legislature approved amendments to the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法). The amendments, which were proposed by the Ministry of the Interior and approved by the Executive Yuan on Jan. 12, aim to attract foreign talent to Taiwan and encourage them to stay. They would take effect once they are signed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). The amendments involved changing 63 articles, making it the biggest
FIRST STEP: Business groups in Taiwan welcomed the deal, which does not include tariff reductions at this stage, as they called for the elimination of double taxation Taiwan and the US yesterday signed an initial agreement under the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade. The agreement was signed yesterday morning by Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Managing Director Ingrid Larson in Washington, the Office of Trade Negotiations in Taipei said. The ceremony was witnessed by Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) and Deputy US Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi. Taiwan and the US started talks under the initiative in August last year, after Taipei was left out of the Washington-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. “The deal that will be signed tonight is not only very historic,
Beijing yesterday blamed US “provocation” for an incident last week in which a Chinese plane crossed in front of a US surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea. The incident came at a time of frayed ties between Washington and Beijing over issues including Taiwan and the shooting down of an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US this year. “The United States’ long-term and frequent sending of ships and planes to conduct close surveillance on China seriously harms China’s national sovereignty and security,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) said when asked about the latest incident. “This
RSS